V. I.

Lenin

TO ANNA YELIZAROVA [1]

The main principle of administration, in the spirit of all the decisions of the R.C.P. and the central Soviet
institutions, is the following:

— a definite person is fully responsible for some specified
work.

I have been doing something (for such-and-such a time),
and I am responsible for it. I am hindered by X, who is
not the responsible person, who is not in charge.

This means squabbling. This means chaos. This means interference by a person unsuitable for responsible work.
I demand his removal .

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Notes:
[1]

A. I. Yelizarova tells the following: “This was in the autumn
of 1920. Since that January, my department, under a decision of
the Council of People’s Commissars, had been transferred from the
People’s Commissariat for Social Security to the People’s
Commissariat for Education. I hesitated to move with it at once: I was afraid that I would not be able to work with the People’s
Commissariat for Education—because of the differences on some
points—especially after the sudden appointment as my deputy
of a total stranger from the Commissariat for Education in place
of one of my associates. Vladimir Ilyich suggested that I give
it a try, and if things didn’t work out and I failed to establish
a working arrangement with this person, then I could make an
effort to get another deputy. In fact things did not work out....” =

She informed Lenin of this and he handed her the note at a sitting
of the Council of People’s Commissars (A. I. Yelizarova, “A Page
from Reminiscences about Vladimir Ilyich in the Council of
People’s Commissars”. =

Vospominaniya o V. I. Lenine . Ch. 2 [
Reminiscences of Lenin. Part Two], 1957, pp. 293–94).